Bowling Green football was 30 minutes away from completing one of the biggest upsets in school history.
Out in Happy Valley slash State College slash University Park slash whatever you want to call it, the Falcons had the eighth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions on the ropes.
After a fast-paced first-half shootout, Bowling Green led 24-20.
They had completely taken the crowd out of the game.
The Falcons had the death beam pointed straight at Central Pennsylvania.
Everything, everything, was going in the way of Bowling Green.
Senior quarterback Connor Bazelak was picking apart Penn State’s top-ranked defense. He was 16-20 for 192 yards and two touchdowns at half.
The run game, down starting junior running back Terion Stewart, was clicking. They had 94 rushing yards on 15 carries at halftime, more than Penn State gave up to West Virginia in the entire game last week.
Junior tight end Harold Fannin Jr. set a career-high in receiving yards before halftime. He caught seven of his eight targets for 110 yards and a score.
Most importantly, the offensive line kept one of the best defensive fronts in the country at bay. Bazelak had as much time to throw as he wanted and wasn’t sacked once.
“I thought we did a great job with a bunch of different cadences to slow them down,” head coach Scot Loeffler said postgame. “If you watch the West Virginia game, they were literally painting their ears back to the sides and running off the ball, and we just knew that we needed to have multiple ways with the cadence, multiple ways with the claps, multiple ways with indicators to give ourselves a chance.”
Then, disaster struck.
“At the end of the game, those last couple of drives, we just ran out of bullets,” Loeffler said. “They got into two-man [coverage], we knew they had it in their package, and we just couldn’t beat two-man at the end of the day.”
After getting outscored 24-20 in the first half, Penn State’s halftime adjustments saved the day. They outscored Bowling Green 14-3 in half number two, and BG was a field goal with 50 seconds remaining away from being shut out in the second half.
Even with an empty clip, Bowling Green was still in the game, thanks to a stellar performance from their defense.
Despite allowing 34 points, Bowling Green’s defense kept Penn State junior starting quarterback Drew Allar uncomfortable in the pocket, sacking him twice and forcing him to throw off-platform, resulting in his first interception of the season to senior cornerback Ja’Corey Benjamin and just the third of his career, among other errant throws.
But, despite the defense’s best efforts in keeping Penn State at bay, the offense simply just could not move the football for the final 29 minutes and 13 seconds of the game.
They had used everything they had in the first half and had stalled out when they needed to get themselves in gear.
“Yeah, I mean, we did a really good job in the first half. Obviously, they were going to adjust and make some adjustments. They played a lot more two high, two-man zone coverage,” Bazelak said. “I think we ran a ton of plays in the first half, and I think we just kind of ran out of bullets. It is what it is, but at the end of the day, I mean, we’ve got to figure out a way to make one more play. One more block, one more catch, one more throw, whatever it takes to win the game, and we just came up a little short.”
Loeffler and Bowling Green will have two weeks to stock back up on ammo, with an upcoming bye before the team heads to Aggieland for a primetime matchup with Texas A&M.
Kickoff from Kyle Field is slated for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21.
